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I usually base it one whether or not a large number of the people who work also live within the incorporated limits.
Cities have lots of feeder communities, but IMO towns don't. Towns have people who either live and work there, or live there but commute somewhere else to work.
For me thats hard I live in a town of about 314,000 people not including the "city" with another 21,000 but we aren't a city IMO.. we're a big town. We don't have highrises except condos on the beach and our actual downtown is mostly one main street drag thats it. For me to qualify it as a city I think of NYC, Boston etc. the rest are just big towns
In Ohio, it's when a smaller government subdivision of a county -- an unincorporated township or an incorporated village -- reaches a population of 5,000, and then gains either voter or legislative approval (I forget which; maybe both).
I usually base it one whether or not a large number of the people who work also live within the incorporated limits.
Cities have lots of feeder communities, but IMO towns don't. Towns have people who either live and work there, or live there but commute somewhere else to work.
I guess that works for the USA, although not for many other countries. Many mid-sized and small Canadian cities have most of the metro within city limits, this includes Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Hamilton, London, Barrie, Quebec City, Halifax, Regina, Saskatoon, Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Trois-Rivieres, St John's...
I wouldn't say it "works for" us, as it is the root problem in a lot of American metro areas, but it's the way things are now, due to public highways and a lack of public transit, and other forces contributing to the growth of suburbs and exoburbs.
Well Monterey, Santa Cruz, Berkeley, Santa Monica, Beverley Hills, and Santa Rosa all have very tall buildings in their downtown and are below 200,000 sq. ft.
I think the biggest judge is do judge by a city by the density or amount of people living there. And usually more people means higher density.
Juneau, Alaska has about 30,000 population but has a very dense downtown. Do you consider it a town or city?
Or look at Irvine, Costa Mesa, and Mission Viejo. Very dense suburban communities, but no downtown. But still considered cities.
Also look at Oxnard which has 200,000 population and a very small downtown. It's still considered a city.
Colorado law makes relatively few distinctions between a city and a town. In general, cities are more populous than towns, although the town of Castle Rock and the town of Parker have more than 45,000 residents each, while the City of Black Hawk has fewer than 120 residents.
They can exist in either, cant think of a major city without a mall actually within the city
Hmm. I was thinking of malls as a suburban thing.
I didn't expect Philly to have malls.
What counts as a mall? The only mall I could find listed for Boston is a shopping center on the bottom floors of a skyscraper in the city center (well just outside). It has its own parking garage; but also its own subway station. Still I guess it's a mall, just not my image of a mall.
I think the posters here are using "town" in two different usages. One is the legal definition, another is a more colloquial usage meaning "a populated place less built up than a city". I think the OP meant the latter. I don't think the legal definition matters much unless you're dealing with the local laws or government.
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Originally Posted by the city
Or look at Irvine, Costa Mesa, and Mission Viejo. Very dense suburban communities, but no downtown. But still considered cities.
Long Island has some communities that are likely denser than those "cities" you listed. But no one would call them cities; they're just suburbs with houses that happen to be rather close together and are mostly bedroom communities with some small businesses mixed in. Maybe a good definition of a city is a place that has some core to it, at least is a destination of its own in the metro area, rather than a bedroom community.
Where I live fits all your criteria of a town except the low density part. Almost half of the population does not live in single family homes and the center is definitely not low density. There are large 4 story apartment buildings near me; but also farmland in walking distance. The change from somewhat dense housing to farmland is rather abrupt.
In Massachusetts, legally there's not a huge difference between towns and cities. A town can have a town meeting form of government while a city usually has a mayor.
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